Thursday, July 28, 2016

The San Francisco Giants posted the best won-loss record in baseball in the first half of the season. Since the All-Star break, they've posted the worst.

After losing a series to the last place Reds, the Giants face the first place Nationals. But they do so with Joe Panik back in the lineup, and with the prospect of Hunter Pence back this weekend. Matt Duffy is also show signs of recovery and may be off to his rehab assignment soon.

They've also brought up a lefthanded reliever, a one-inning specialist so far.

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

The SF Giants are on a terrible losing streak, mostly to teams they should be handling, although their misfortunes include meeting these teams when they are on win streaks.

Most good teams go through this--the Cubs did just before the break--and it's good to remember at such times that the Giants were collapsing so much late in the 2014 season that one of the SF Chronicle's top sportwriters wrote that it was becoming obvious there wouldn't be any even-year championship parade. And yet, there was.

But as fans wait for SF to right the ship, it's worth noting that having all the injuries they had plus an undependable bullpen probably made also having the best record in baseball unsustainable. It's going to take awhile to work guys back in over the next month or more, and it's likely to be a close race in the division, even with the Dodgers own injury troubles.

Right now the team can't even win for Bumgarner, while the rest of the rotation (except for Cueto, perhaps) is weakening. Or maybe it's the warmer weather and the balls aren't dying in the outfield anymore. The Giants are back home and will be at home a lot in the next month or so. I doubt if there are 8 out of 9 winning streaks to come--a lot of good teams are coming in-- but they should get back to winning more often than not.

The Cubs went all in for their bullpen with the Yankees' Chapman and there's not much time for the Giants to acquire what everyone else is also looking for. But with the starting rotation vulnerable, and leaving runners on base an epidemic, there are other problems. Given the high prices and low availability out there, the Giants may have to rely on their own players who have been better than they have recently. Maybe they will be great again. If any team organization can bring that out, it's the Giants.